The 10 Best Chicken Wing Spots in New York City

First, an admission: This writer is from Buffalo, and there is no wing better than what's fried in my city. Buffalo established the wing rules, that it must be deep fried, that it must be tossed in butter and Frank’s RedHot (or a comparable cayenne sauce with enough vinegar to make your nostrils run for cover), and that it must be served with a side of celery sticks, carrots, and bleu cheese for dipping (that bleu cheese must be chunky.)

If you're unfamiliar with the history of the Buffalo chicken wing, familiarize yourself with Calvin Trillin's must-read 1980 New Yorker article, which investigates the murky origins of the dish. The point is, wings are available all over the country, and everyone does them differently.

While not every restaurant in the city boasts the traditional Buffalo variety, New York has produced some great wings. These are the essentials: the 10 best chicken wing spots in New York City.

Written by Lauren Nostro (@LAURENcynthia)

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Neighborhood: Various

Address: Various (see website)

Website: atomicwings.com

Price: Varies by location

Atomic Wings has every greasy, guilty food that we love to hate, but their chicken wings are some of the closest to traditional Buffalo wings New York offers. And it's because owner Adam Lippin did his damn research. Lippin went to college in Buffalo, and upon moving to the Big Apple found himself feenin' for good wings. So, he journeyed back to Buffalo to learn the secrets of two landmark wing spots: Anchor Bar (the home of the Buffalo wing) and Duff's. Because of his committment to the craft, Lippin's wings are crispy and spicy, with a slight vinegar tang.

Neighborhood: Various

Address: Various (see website)

Website: bonchon.com

Price: Varies by location

BonChon Chicken is a Korean fried chicken chain that serves a great remix of the classic. The wings have light, crispy skins and are seasoned only after the frying process is complete, with either a semi-sweet garlic-soy glaze or a hot red-pepper sauce.

BonChon in Manhattan offers a karaoke-and-chicken party. But if you're looking for celery, carrots, and bleu cheese, you won't find any—the wings are served with cubed pickled daikon radish on the side. And it's addicting.

Neighborhood: Hell's Kitchen

Address: 599 10th Ave.

Website: lansdowneroadnyc.com

Price: $7.95 (for 12); $12.95 (for 24); $23.95 (for 50)

Lansdowne Road inherited the "World Famous" Scruffy Duffy's wings. For those unfamiliar, Scruffy Duff's was a former Steelers bar right off Times Square on 8th Avenue that was shut down years ago. Thankfully, its sister bar, Lansdowne Road, inherited the legendary wings. The chicken wings are thin and crispy but with enough meat to soak in the hot pepper-flake sauce. The only problem? The bleu cheese is chunk-free.

Neighborhood: Waterfront District, Brooklyn
Address: 127 Columbia St.
Website: pokpokny.com
Price: $12.50

The wings at Pok Pok NY are not your typical Sunday afternoon football wing—they're the best gourmet wings you can find in NYC for a reasonable price. Chef Andy Ricker, who opened the original Pok Pok in Portland, Oregon, in 1995 marinates his famous Ike's Vientamese Fish Sauce Wings in garlic, sugar, and fish sauce before dusting them in a rice flour-tempura mix. They're fried twice then coated in a fish sauch garamel, then finished with more garlic. They're spicy, sweet, wonderfully sticky, and unlike any other wing you've ever had.

Neighborhood: West Village
Address: 281 Bleecker St.
Website: blindtigeralehouse.com
Price: $12

Blind Tiger Ale House boasts an amazing beer list and menu: cheese plates from Murray's, a Vietnamese Bahn Mi sandwich, and a roast pork Cuban, just to name a few. But you've come for the wings. While they're smaller than most, Blind Tiger's wings are doused in a tangy Buffalo sauce and what they lack in size, they make up for in flavor. It's a simple method: wings are baked and then grilled to order before hitting your table next to a homemade bleu cheese dipping dressing. Bonus points for serving food until 2 a.m.

Neighborhood: Park Slope, Brooklyn
Address: 278 5th Ave.
Website: bonniesgrill.com
Price: $8.95 (for 10); $13.95 (for 20)

Bonnie's Grill is a Brooklyn favorite. The owner, Mike Naber, is a North Tonawanda (a suburb of Buffalo) native, and he's created wings that have moved entire generations of Buffalonians to the Slope. The wings are huge and leave that raw Frank's taste in your mouth, just like a good and hot buffalo sauce should. You'll get the sauce everywhere, but don't be ashamed. It makes a great topping for fries.

Neighborhood: Upper West Side
Address: 281 Bleecker St.
Website: blondiessports.com
Price: $9.95 (for 10); $17.95 (for 20)

Blondies Sports bar has serious Buffalo pride—they're one of the few bars in the city to broadcast University at Buffalo college sports. On Monday nights they serve all you can eat wings, but on any night, the wings at Blondies are legend. They're the "fried and drenched" variety: coated in sauce but still cracklin'-crisp. If you're not missing Buffalo too much, you can order the wings in honey mustard, barbecue, honey barbecue, and garlic. But the Buffalo sauce is where it's at.

Neighborhood: Greenpoint, Brooklyn
Address: 557 Manhattan Ave.
Website: barmatchless.com
Price: $6 (half); $10 (whole)

A personal favorite of many on the 'Plex team, Bar Matchless serves the best traditional wings in Brooklyn. It's too damn hard in the borough to get decently-sized wings where the skin is crisp and yet the meat still slides off the bone. But at Matchless, they nail it—and the hot sauce will make your lips swell but won't linger too long in your mouth. The bleu cheese is perfect, never watery, never too chunky.

Bar Matchless offer four flavors: Classic Buffalo, Honey Lemon Cracked Pepper, Bourbon BBQ, and Sweet and Sour. They also offer 50 cent wings during Happy Hour from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Neighborhood: Flatiron
Address: 45 East 18th St.
Website: oldtownbar.com
Price: $9.50 (small); $13.25 (large)

Manhattan's Old Town Bar has been pouring pints since 1892, making it one of New York's oldest neighborhood bars. Old Town serves a single type of Buffalo wing—they're craftsmen over there—and while petite, the wings are consistent in quality. In fact, these are textbook Buffalo wings, dripping in that butter-and-Frank's combo.

Neighborhood: NoHo
Address: 54 Great Jones St.
Website: greatjones.com
Price: $11.95

The creole wings at Great Jones cannot be underestimated, though they've certainly been overlooked. However, just because Great Jones is a Southern restaurant best known for cheap burgers and great catfish, do not sleep on the wings.

Doused in a homemade hot sauce that hits all the right sweet and savory notes, the wings have the crispy skin chicken wing lovers would die for. But that sauce—the sauce is so good that, after you've finished the wings, you'll drag all the thin slices of carrot and other veggies that garnish the platter through the dregs just to keep the flavor in your mouth. When you're coating raw vegetables in wing sauce, something is right with the world (you know, aside from the wrong that is the wings being gone).

Great Jones Cafe will become the secret you share with all your friends.